K’taka floor test: CM BS Yeddyurappa, Siddaramaiah take oath as MLAs

Bengaluru:&nbsp;B S Yeddyurappa will face a floor test on Saturday, barely 55 hours into office, after a Supreme Court order truncated the 15-day window the Governor gave him to prove majority, a hurdle he can clear only by engineering defections, or making MLAs of the JD(S)-Congress combine to resign or abstain from voting. The apex court has fixed the time for the floor test at 4 pm on Saturday.

Experts said the BJP had two options to make the numbers: Get 16 Opposition MLAs to resign or abstain from voting, or secure the defection of seven legislators. Resignation of 16 lawmakers would bring down the number required for victory during the trust vote to 103, one less than what the BJP has.

11:30&nbsp;am: &quot;The SC heard the pleas of the Congress, all their pleas have been rejected. The desperate attempts of Congress to remove him from post has failed. I think they are scared and&nbsp;did not even want a floor test in the first place,&quot; said&nbsp;senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi.&nbsp;

11:09 am:&nbsp;Hearing on Congress-JD(S) plea challenging appointment of pro tem speaker KG Bopaiah: Supreme Court says, &quot;Live broadcast of floor test would be the best way to ensure transparency of proceedings.&quot;

10:50&nbsp;am:&nbsp;Inside visuals of Vidhana Soudha. Floor test to be held at 4 pm today.

(Photo: ANI/Twitter)

10:45&nbsp;am:&nbsp;Hearing on Congress-JD(S) plea challenging appointment of pro tem speaker KG Bopaiah: Kapil Sibal says,&nbsp;&quot;The individual appointed must be the senior most member of the House which is a convention in the Parliament also.&quot;

10:23&nbsp;am:&nbsp;HD Kumaraswamy of the JD(S)&nbsp;said, &quot;For me, today is not an important day, the important days will come in future. Up to 4 pm, BJP will try to poach our MLAs. All the MLAs are together, no one is going to go to the other side. None of our MLAs are trapped. Siddaramaiah and I&nbsp;will go together.&quot;

09:20&nbsp;am:&nbsp;Ramalinga Reddy on Congress MLA Anand Singh&nbsp;who was missing said, &quot;Physically he is not with us but he is in contact with our leaders. He has to come to Vidhana Soudha today. He will definitely vote for us. He is with us. He will come back.&quot;

09:10 am:&nbsp;KG Bopaiah, the pro-tem speaker, at Vidhan&nbsp;Soudha in Bengaluru. The Supreme Court on Saturday morning will first hear whether BJP lawmaker KG Bopaiah is qualified to be the temporary speaker or not. &nbsp;

08:45 am:&nbsp;Congress&#39; Ghulam Nabi Azad said, &quot;Numbers are against the BJP. Numbers are in favor of us. MLAs are in our favour. We will form the government in the Karnataka Assembly today.&quot;

08:40 am:&nbsp;On Saturday morning, Karnataka Congress and JD(S) MLAs who were shifted to Hyderabad, to avoid poaching of MLAs, reached Bengaluru ahead of the floor test.

(Photo: ANI/Twitter)

08:32 am:&nbsp;A confident Yeddyurappa said, &quot;100 per cent&nbsp;I am going to have absolute majority. Tomorrow I am going to take all that decision which I promised to the people of Karnataka.&quot;

08:30 am:&nbsp;&nbsp;Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa arrived&nbsp;at Shangri-La hotel for the party legislature meeting on Saturday morning. He will soon leave for the Assembly where the trust vote is set to take place later in the day.

***

Note from Kannada.Club :

This story has been auto-generated from a syndicated feed from http://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/190518/karnataka-floor-test-today-at-4-pm-jds-mlas-arrive-in-bengaluru.html .